This week on the RATS blog, we’re tossing buckets of chum your way.
Amy Hempel has been kind enough to offer up a suggested reading list. Anyone who’s a fan of Hempel’s work (and there are many, many) will be interested in checking this out. This is part of a new section on the site devoted to recommended reading from well-known authors and teachers … Remember: If you’re stuck, it’s always good to go back and read, read, read.
Elimae, the online literary journal, also offers a page of recommendations that is worth checking out.
http://www.elimae.com/recommended.html
Here is a piece from The Believer about the late Donald Barthelme’s class syllabus/reading list.
http://www.believermag.com/issues/200310/article_moffett.php
Here is an essay by Flannery O’Connor called “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction.” Anyone familiar with her essay “The Nature and Aim of Fiction”, should enjoy this one. It includes such choice bits as: “Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.”
We are in the process of creating several new sections on soarats.org. The hope is that these sections will expand over time and make the site a useful resource for students working on their theses.
In addition to reading lists, another section of the site will be devoted to bookstores in Manhattan. Personal favorites include: Housing Works Book Cafe on Crosby Street in Soho (also a great place to work if you need one), 12th Street Books near Union Square, and Mercer Books near Houston.
Housing Works: http://www.housingworks.org/usedbookcafe/index.html
Mercer Street Books: http://mercerbooks.com/
Coming soon we’ll also have a section devoted to writing exercises. I know, I know…exercises…oy! But wait and see. These can be a great way to think critically about your theses.
Reading series in the boroughs can be hit or miss. One that’s more often a hit is the Happy Endings Reading Series. While it suffers from some of the usual woes, host Amanda Stern, has wrangled big name readers, like James Salter, Amy Hempel, Lydia Davis, Rick Moody, Ben Kunkel, Jim Shepherd, Gary Lutz, and Aimee Bender, to name a few. It’s worth getting on their email list. (At one reading, John Lurie (see Stranger Than Paradise, Down By Law, The Lounge Lizards) read a piece from his memoirs, about dropping acid and shooting an art film on stolen money, and then having the money stolen by hookers. Then he played harmonica on-stage for the first time in thirty-five years and nearly collapsed.)
Happy Endings Reading Series: http://www.amandastern.com/happyending.html
And finally, for your reading pleasure… Here is a great interview with fiction writer, Padgett Powell from The Believer.
Padgett Powell Interview:
http://www.believermag.com/issues/200609/?read=interview_powell
Stay tuned for writing exercises and more reading lists!
–Alex
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